Unfortunately this turned out to be a dry crumbly mess (tastes good tho). Could be I followed suggestion of getting wet mixture to soft ball stage (235-240F). Recipe on Food Network has it with 1c peanut butter, maybe that would do better.

My families recipe calls for a cup of shredded cocoanut. This helps to firm up the cookies and prevent them from crumbling in your fingers. It also adds more flavor to the mix. In recent years we've had to use peanut butter substitutes due to a peanut allergy in the family. Sun flower butter and Wow butter have bother proven to work well in this and not detract from the flavor.

I made a recipe pretty close to this one last summer. I seem to remember that they get very sticky when left at room temperature (disclaimer: I live in Florida, keep my rooms around 74 deg F, and it was a typical hot and humid August). I had to store them in the fridge to keep them from becoming one big peanut-butter-oatmeal glob. Delicious, but much easier to eat in cookie-size pieces!

The "boil for X minutes" step is the culprit here, as these are actually a type of candy. For more reliable future prep use a candy thermometer and boil until the mixture reaches about 235-240F, or what candy makers call soft ball stage.

I find Old Fashioned style oats work best here as they soak up excess moisture slower than Quick Cooking oats and the flakes are full size and bit better looking as well.

If you find your mixture is too dry to dish out add a bit more milk and stir gently with low heat to loosen things up again. If the mixture is too wet or loose to dish then simply cook it a bit longer.